Saints celebrated on the 29th of July
Prayer to the Angels and the Saints
Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.
In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.
Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.
Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.
ST OLAVE, KING OF NORWAY
Saint Olave (Olaus, [Olaf]) was son of Herald Grenscius, prince of Westfold in Norway, by his wife, Asta, daughter of Gulbrand Kuta, governor of Gulbrand’s Dale or Valley. He delivered his country from the tyranny under which the Swedes and Danes had for some time held it.
In 1013, he sailed to England, and successfully assisted king Ethelred against the Danes after the death of Sueno or Swayn [Svein] their king. He afterwards waged war against Olaus Scot-Konung, king of Sweden, till, making an advantageous peace, he took to wife the daughter of that king.
HE BROUGHT OVER FROM ENGLAND SEVERAL PIOUS AND LEARNED PRIESTS AND MONKS
St Olave brought over from England several pious and learned priests and monks, one of whom, named Grimkele, was chosen bishop of Trondheim, his capital. The holy king did nothing without the advice of this prelate, and by his counsels published many wholesome laws, and abolished such ancient laws and customs as were contrary to the Gospel.
HE TRAVELLED IN PERSON FROM TOWN TO TOWN
St Olave travelled in person from town to town, exhorting his subjects to open the eyes of their souls to the bright light of faith. A company of zealous preachers attended him, and he demolished in many places the idolatrous temples. The heathens rebelled, and with the assistance of Canutus [Knut] the Great, defeated and expelled him. St Olave fled into Russia, whence he soon after returned, and raised an army in order to recover his kingdom, but was slain by rebellious and infidel subjects in a battle fought at Stichstadt, north of Trondheim, on July 29, 1030, having reigned sixteen years.
HE WAS SLAIN
St Olave’s body was honourably buried at Trondheim, and the year following bishop Grimkele commanded him to be honoured in that church among the saints with the title of martyr. His son Magnus was called home from Russia in 1035, and restored to the throne. Sweno, who saw himself entirely abandoned, fled into Sweden. Magnus exceedingly promoted the devotion of the people to the memory of his father, the martyr, who was chosen titular saint of the cathedral of Trondheim.
HIS BODY WAS FOUND INCORRUPT
The body of St Olave was found incorrupt in 1098; and again when the Lutherans plundered the shrine in 1541, which was adorned with gold and jewels of an immense value, a treasure no where equalled in the North. The ship which carried the greater part of this sacrilegious booty perished at sea in the road to Denmark; the rest was robbed at land, so that nothing of it came into the king of Denmark’s hands. The Lutherans treated the saint’s body with respect, and left it in the same place where the shrine had stood, in the inner wooden case, till in 1568 they decently buried it in the same cathedral. A shirt or inner garment of St Olave’s is shown at St Victor’s in Paris.
HIS SHRINE BECAME FAMOUS FOR MANY MIRACLES
His shrine became famous by many miracles, and he was honoured with extraordinary devotion throughout all the northern kingdoms, and was titular saint of several churches in England and Scotland. He was called by our ancestors St Olave, and more frequently St Tooley.
(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)
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